She was known as the third sister, but her name was Leala. Her mother had told her what it meant, brave, many years ago before the littlest of the sisters, Khalida, had even been born. The littlest mermaid’s birth had cost Leala a mother, and sometimes Leala wondered how her mother would feel knowing that her last child was gone now too, run away to the surface to be among the humans with their dusty roads and dancing feet. Every morning for several days after her sister left, Leala would swim to the banks nearest the prince’s palace in hopes of seeing Khalida. Sometimes her sister appeared, dancing alongside the prince in gowns of silk and gold. Eventually she did not appear at all and Leala retreated down into the water, her heart filled with sorrow. Of all the princesses, Leala was most fond of Khalida; she had been the one who taught the youngest to swim, to sing in the ancient tongue of the ocean. The sea-palace had grown dismal and gloomy since the littlest mermaid ran away. All singing and merry-making had been banned from the kingdom and the sea was quiet and still as it had never been since the beginning of time. The sea-king sat alone beside his mother; she had taken to her chambers since she heard the news of Khalida’s disappearance and with each passing day more and more of her long hair fell onto the palace floor until her head was left bare. Leala spent her days sitting with her sisters in their gardens. The princesses tried to distract themselves by tending to their flower beds but their bitter sighs were as poisonous to the plants are their songs had been nourishing and soon there was not a bloom left in the palace aside from the red flowers of Khalida’s garden, which grew in wild tangles through the halls. Eventually they became tall enough to block the sunlight that filtered through the crystal windows and the palace fell into darkness.
One
morning, Leala found herself the first to awaken and she decided to sneak out
of the palace to see the sea witch herself, thinking, “If she helped my sister
to leave the sea, maybe she can help her return.” The bright blue of the ocean
outside surprised her; she had grown used to the blackness within the royal
walls and was delighted to see the sun filtering in sparkling beams through the
water, and the little rainbow fish that made wobbly circles around her tail.
However, she knew not to tarry and reluctantly forced her tail to propel her
towards the angry frothing whirlpools that marked the edges of the sea witch’s
territory.
The
witch’s polypi seemed to grow excited at Leala’s approach and stretched their
limbs towards her, their slimy branches holding tight to the rotting corpses of
the poor souls they had already caught. Swallowing the hard rock of fear that
rose in her throat, Leala held her body straight as a pin and swam fast as she
could through the wriggling mass of polypi, not daring to glance at what
creatures they might have in their grasp.
Past
the reach of the polypi the sea witch sat on a large mass of gray fungus
growing out of the mud. Coiled around her wrists sat two black snakes whose
tails wound down to her ankles. A fat
slug lay draped over her shoulders.
“Oh
look who it is, another young mermaid!” The sea witch declared. “You look a lot
like the last one, though perhaps not as fair. I already know that you have
come to inquire after her but you are far too late and I’m afraid she is gone
forever. She made a choice to trade her fish tail for feet so she could walk
alongside her prince and win an eternal soul.” At this the witch cackled,
causing the snakes to hiss and the slug to draw up into a lump. “But I know
this fate is not to be. You know this fate is not to be. That is why you came
here. You know as well as I know that the prince will fall for another, a royal
girl whose hand will bring wealth and union between kingdoms. The day he weds
another will be the day your sister’s heart breaks and she will become nothing
more than the foam of the sea.”
“You
wicked!” Leala thrashed her tail, her voice trembling with anger. “You have no
use for her on the land.”
“I
had no use for her anyway,” laughed the sea witch. “I was simply giving the poor
thing a chance, though hopeless none-the-less, to get the thing she desired
most. What was I to do, let her spend her 300 years of life in the sea pining
for 100 years on land? She paid her price and I gave her my services.”
“What
was the price?” Leala asked, gathering her courage though her hands shook and
her bones quaked with fear. “Allow me to pay as she did so I may walk upon land
in order to bring her back.”
“You
are a silly thing, hopeful even when it is most useless. As I said before, you
are too late for I will not be able to make another potion that would allow you
to take the form of a human for another year’s time. By then your sister will
be long dead.”
“Is
there nothing I can do? Nothing I can give you to make you help me?”
The
witch furrowed her brow in thought for a moment and looked over the young
princess before her. “Perhaps I can do something. Watch the land for news that
the prince is to wed. The night before he is to marry, return to me with every
sister but the youngest and I will have a way for you to bring her back to the
sea as a mermaid. But know that there will be a cost for my assistance when you
return. Now be gone.”
Without
thanking the sea witch, Leana turned and quickly swam away from the disgusting
cove, back through the polypi and the whirlpools to the calm water that
surrounded the palace. When she crept back inside everyone was already awake
and her worried sisters crowded around her.
“You’ve
been to see the sea witch,” said the eldest. “I can tell by the slime in your
hair.”
“I
had to try to get Khalida back.”
“Well,
I want nothing to do with the evil witch,” retorted the second. “While my heart
is saddened for our sister, the sea witch is not the answer to the
problem.”
“The
sea witch is the only answer. Unless we seek her help, there is no hope for
Khalida.”
“We
shall not go,” said the oldest sister, folding her arms over her chest. “It is
far too dangerous.”
When she heard this, Leala’s heart sunk, for she knew
what was to become to her young sister and she wanted with all her might to
weep but the salt water surrounding her did not allow it. For the next
fortnight she swam to the surface every day, using a canal that ran under the
prince’s balcony to keep watch on the palace. She watched the king’s slaves
gather lumber and to build a large elaborate wedding ship that cast heavy
shadows over the water surrounding it.
One morning, still weary from a restless night’s sleep,
Leala’s eyes caught sight of her young sister walking out from the palace with
the prince behind her. They were both dressed in robes of elaborate silk and
fine cute jewels, but Khalida’s face was heavy with sadness and she did not
look up as they boarded the ship. Leala waited, hidden, until she heard the
sounding of trumpets and the declaration that the marriage would be held the
very next day at sea. Then she hurried away before the ship could take up
anchor.
Leala rushed towards the sea witch’s murky grotto as quickly
as she could. She barely noticed the polypi or the snakes as she swam, not
stopping to catch her breath until she reached the witch.
“So you’re back. Where are the others?” The witch seemed
to float over her cauldron. She stirred a liquid as dark as the night but when
a bit of light would flicker over it, Leala could see that it was red as blood.
“They would not come,” Leala replied. “They refuse to ask
for your help.”
“Silly things,” the witch sighed. “I suppose there is no
use for my potion then. I will use it to feed the polypi.”
“No!” Leala explained, clasping together her shaking
hands. “I will do anything.”
“You alone cannot pay me, for I desire your hair and the
hair of your sisters. Bring me every royal lock on their heads and I will help
you.”
So Leala returned home again, more careful this time not
to be caught entering the palace. That night she slipped the stems of sleeping
sea nettles into their food so that they would not wake up and as they slept
she cut their hair, binding the long strands in pieces of kelp. Then she
returned to the sea witch.
The witch was pleased and laughed heartily at the bundle
of hair that Leala bore. Then with a knife sharper than the finest royal blade
she chopped the hair from the princess’s head, dropping her locks and the knife
into the boiling mixture within the cauldron. When she removed the knife it was
somehow both clear and black. The witch tested it on her own finger, bringing
her hand to her lips to taste the blood.
“This knife is what will save your sister. Tell her to
take it and plunge it into the prince’s beating heart. When his blood flows
onto her feet her legs they will once again become the tail of a mermaid and
she will be free to return to the water. If she fails, though, she will die as
I mentioned before. Now make haste, for when the sun rises and the sky becomes
blue it will be too late.”
Leala took the knife, clutching it to her breast as she
swam back through the polypi which shrunk away when they saw the glowing blade.
The ship was easy to find; it had sailed out a good bit from the land but Leala
followed its shadow and emerged near the helm where Khalida stood, tears
streaming down her pale face. She looked surprised to see her sister and opened
her mouth to speak but then closed it again.
The wind felt cold on Leala’s shorn head; she shivered
and held the knife up in the air. “I sold the sea witch my hair for this knife.
If you stab it through the prince’s heart his blood will turn your legs back
into a tail and you can come back to us.” She threw the knife up onto the deck
and watched Khalida catch it. “Will you do it sister? Will you return home?”
Khalida said nothing, simply clutching the knife until
her hands turned white around it. Then she turned her back on the ocean and
walked below the deck, leaving Leala longing for the sound of her sister’s
voice.
Leala waited, shivering, just below the surface of the
water. She watched as the sky grew pale,
then turned to pink as the sun lifted its face over the edge of the horizon.
She closed her eyes, hoped and prayed for the water to break, for Khalida’s
face to appear in front of her but it never did. Finally she heard a splash and
poked her head out from the waves. The sky was bright but there was no sign of
Khalida and the sea was covered with thick frothy foam. Catching a glint in the
water, Leala swam to it but it was only the knife, sinking slowly down.
Leala screamed. Those on the ship, thinking someone had
fallen overboard, came out on the deck and looked over the sides of the boat.
Finally the prince emerged with his bride, almost as beautiful as Khalida had
been, to hear that the fair little girl was gone. Khalida was dead.
Closing her eyes, Leala allowed herself to sink. She had
failed and she wished the water would suffocate her and swallow her up like a
human. Exhausted, her head pounded with a sadness that she could not weep away
and she floated out of consciousness, a blankness filling her head. She dreamt
of Khalida, of holding her younger sister’s little white hands and telling her
tales of the surface, of the bright silver moon and chirping, flying fish and
furry animals that barked and jumped. There was no sadness back then and Leala
basked in the comfort of the memory. When she awoke she was floating on top of
the water and her face stung, burnt red from the rays of the sun. Before her
there was a ghostly face, white and transparent, smiling widely.
“Khalida?” She asked, for the being looked like her
sister but was larger and brightly shining like a star. She seemed to be a part
of the air, and yet she was there and she reached her hands out to Leala.
“Sister, I have not been completely lost,” said Khalida.
“Humans cannot see me but to merfolk and fairies I am a spirit now. I live in
the sky. Oh Leala, it’s so beautiful up there. I wish you could see it.”
“Please sister, don’t say that. I couldn’t save you,”
Leala whispered. “I tried to save you. I betrayed our sisters’ trust to save
you and now you can never come home.”
“But you can come to me,” replied Khalida, her smile
growing even brighter. “Whenever you swim to the surface I will be here. Until
the end of your years I will be a part of the space above the water and you may
visit me whenever you like.”
“How can this be if you are dead?” Leala asked. “Mermaid
do not have souls that live on after we die.”
Shaking her head, Khalida floated down to her sister in
the water and touched her face. Her hands were warm and brought a sense of
comfort. For the first time, Leala felt a wetness running down her face and
Khalida wiped the tears away with hands as light and soothing as a breeze.
“Return home,” she said, “and tell everyone that I am
alive. Dear sister, tell them that I am eternal.”

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